Archive for October, 2011

I’ve finally gotten everything drawn in this one. I may still go back and touch things up some later, but I’ll study it for awhile first. These images are from a scan so you can see it more accurately than in the previous photos. Click them to see slightly larger versions.

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I’ve been offline too long so it’s about time to show a new drawing I’ve recently started. This one is based on one of my old photographs showing a biker rider resting in a park. It’s drawn on Strathmore illustration board that’s approximately 14×30 inches.

It’s all drawn with a W&N Cotman #4 watercolor brush. You should be able to see a slight pencil sketch of the figure and bike in the detail image that I’m using as a guide. The ink in the grass area has been diluted about 2:1.

The ink I’m using is an old bottle of Osmiroid brown. It’s not pigmented ink but I haven’t noticed any sign of fading in the drawings I’ve made with it. It has a nice red oxide color to it. I haven’t seen any bottles of this in the States in a long time, but I think it’s still sold overseas.

If you want a straight ink line that comes from using a ruler but don’t like the clean edge it makes, here’s a simple alternative you can try: use a sheet of torn paper instead.

The yellow paper on the left was torn along the edge of a metal ruler. You’ll want to use paper stock that has some stiffness to it, such as 90# weight or more. The inserted image on the bottom was drawn freehanded for comparison. In the lines on the bottom of the drawing you can see that the torn edge creates a noticeable pattern, so in the lines above those I moved the paper slightly to the left or right before making each line. This trick works best with markers instead of dipping nibs unless you raise the paper edge off the surface somehow. Another tip is that the torn edge doesn’t have to be straight. In fact if you want a smooth curved line you could use the paper for that also, just don’t rough up the edge.

Honestly, you’ll likely find this to be a slower process than drawing the lines freehanded, or at least I do. If I need guide lines, I’ll use grided paper underneath the drawing on a lightbox.

Herbert Railtonwas a 19th century architect and illustrator. I was first exposed to him in the excellent pen and ink training book “Rendering in Pen and Ink” by Arthur Guptill. Some time later I found a reprinted copy of a book he illustrated written by Thomas Hood called “The Haunted House” and fell into further admiration for his deft handling of the pen.

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You can search his name at Archive.org and find several books he illustrated. I recommend that all artists should study his work closely.